I must admit that my recent use of Twitter has moved from intrigue to complete infatuation.  Nonetheless, the actions of fellow users have brought several bad habits to my attention.  While I am an advocate of using Twitter to publicize your blog, there is, however, a wrong way to go about it.

A common strategy as of late has been to try and gain notoriety by trying to follow as many users as you can locate through the Twitter community.  Others are even more desperate, unwilling to to take the time to add users themselves, that they enlist the help of a computer bot to explore Twitter in search of potential new ‘targets’.

In fact, I had one user who Twittered a personal message to me: “Hey Gavin funny thing, we have the same interests… i am following you - will you follow me?“  Needless to say, I lacked any desire to return the favor.

So, what’s wrong with adopting the described approach?

Firstly, your target audience will struggle to take you seriously.  It will prove difficult to gain the notoriety and respect that you might otherwise receive and deserve.  As soon as I was approached to engage in an exchange with a completely random individual, my instant impressions were, “Are they desperate or are they DESPERATE?”

Secondly, your stats on the number of users who are following you will mean nothing when you find yourself following 16,000 individuals.  Other users will feel that you did not earn your statistics the proper way; instead, you went around begging.

The bottom line: If your blog is worthy and your “Twitts” are interesting, you will find that users will be more than willing to follow you.  At the same time you will earn a better “Following” to “Followers” ratio - a key statistic.  Those individuals of the Twitter community who are well-respected stay far away from the aforementioned approach.